Aiming to revive the party’s presence in the state ahead of the 2027 assembly polls, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has announced that it will go solo in the upcoming elections to 102 municipal councils and nine municipal corporations in Punjab.
Punjab BSP president Avtar Singh Karimpuri said the party had decided to field candidates independently on the party symbol. The BSP has already launched its statewide “Punjab Sambhalo Muhim” from Ludhiana on May 3 and plans to hold rallies in all 117 assembly constituencies as part of its preparations for the 2027 elections.
In the 2021 civic body elections, the BSP had managed to win only five wards out of 1,817 in municipal councils and nagar panchayats despite fielding 160 candidates across the state. The elections, held for 2,302 wards across eight municipal corporations and over 100 municipal councils and nagar panchayats, were largely dominated by the Congress.
However, the BSP showed signs of revival in last year’s zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections, winning three zila parishad zones, all in Jalandhar, and 28 panchayat samiti zones — 19 in Jalandhar, seven in Nawanshahr, and one each in Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur.
Political observers noted that the results reaffirmed the party’s influence largely remained confined to pockets of the Doaba region with a sizeable Ravidasia/Adi-Dharmi population.
The party’s lone MLA in the 117-member Punjab assembly, Nachhatar Pal, said the BSP was working to rebuild its cadre from the grassroots level. “We are reaching out to booth-level workers. Talks regarding an alliance are going on, but party chief Mayawati will take the final call,” he said.
Despite Punjab having the country’s highest Scheduled Caste population at around 32%, the BSP has steadily lost political ground over the years to parties such as the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
From commanding nearly 16% vote share and electing nine MLAs in 1992, the party’s support base has shrunk significantly. Its vote share fell to 1.5% in 2017 and marginally improved to 1.77% in the 2022 assembly elections, despite contesting in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
The BSP had once emerged as a significant political force in Punjab, winning three Lok Sabha seats in alliance with the SAD in the 1996 parliamentary elections. The party’s founder, Kanshi Ram, also hailed from Punjab.
SAD (Punar Surjit) to also join contest
The Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit) has also announced its decision to contest the upcoming civic body elections in areas where it has a strong organisational presence. On a possible alliance with Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De), the leader said discussions were in the final stages. The Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit) was formed on August 11, 2025, following a split in the SAD led by Sukhbir Singh Badal.
